Mindfulness and Eating Disorder Symptoms

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Mindful Eating Conscious Living: MECL is a 8 week mindfulness-based group intervention. Each session is of 2.5-3 hours duration. During the sessions, theories about eating-related difficulties in general are presented, participants are guided in mindfulness practices and participants who want to share their experiences in the group can do so. Topics include: (1) What is mindfulness, why and how can we use mindfulness in relation to eating (2) slowing down, taking breaks and noticing different types of "hunger" (e.g. physical hunger and the "hunger" for comfort - "heart hunger) (3) working with satiety and satisfaction (4) becoming aware of patterns associated with one's eating behaviors, (5) awareness of feelings and bodily sensations (6) Food and mood (7) craving, and finally (8) working with "heart hunger" and emotional eating. Six to 10 participants participated in each group.

Study summary

This prospective one-arm study aims to examine short and long-term changes in dysfunctional eating among individuals who signed up for an 8-week, group based, low threshold, mindfulness-based intervention. The study is an extension of a quality assurance project which was provided by a nation-wide self-help organization for people with self-identified eating problems. Eating disorder symptoms and the proposed predictors (self-kindness, self-judgment and mindfulness) were registered online at 12 measurement time points. In the current study we will invite the same participants to complete the same measures four years after the intervention.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Change in eating disorder symptoms measured by Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) — Pre, weekly during treatment - 8 weeks, post, 6 months follow-up, four years follow-up
  A self-report questionnaire measuring eating disorder symptoms by Fairburn and colleagues
• Change in self-kindness, self-judgement and mindfulness from the Self-compassion scale — Pre, weekly during treatment - 8 weeks, post, 6 months follow-up, four years follow-up
  Subscales from the self-compassion scale of Kristin Neff and colleagues. Self-kindness indicates the tendency to respond with kindness to own feelings of distress and failure (e.g. I try to be understanding and patient towards those aspects of my personality I don't like). Self-judgment indicates the tendency to respond with self-judgment to own feelings of distress and failure (self-judgment, e.g. I'm disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies). Mindfulness indicates the tendency to respond with balanced awareness to own feelings of distress and failure. E.g.: "When something painful happens I try to take a balanced view of the situation".

Trial sites (1)

More University of Bergen trials in Norway

Other trials for the same condition